1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid ejection apparatus including a liquid ejection head and a curl reduction device that is configured to reduce curl of a recording medium after formation of an image on the recording medium by the liquid ejection head. The present invention relates also to a curl reduction method that is to be executed in the liquid ejection apparatus, and a storage medium storing a control program for executing the curl reduction method.
2. Discussion of Related Art
There is known an inkjet recording apparatus for recording an image on a sheet-like recording medium such as a paper or film by ejecting ink toward the recording medium. As the ink used for such an inkjet recording apparatus, there is one containing water as a solvent. Due to moisture contained in the ink, there is a case where curl is caused in each of the recording media which has received the ink, after formation of the images on the recording medium. If an amount of the curl is larger than a certain amount, the recording media are not neatly stacked on an output tray, thereby causing problem such as folding or bending of each of the recording media. In connection with such a problem, there is known an inkjet recording apparatus in which a size of curl (hereinafter referred to as “curl amount”) that is to be caused in a recording medium after formation of an image on the recording medium, is estimated, and a waiting time is determined depending on the estimated curl amount. That is, in this inkjet recording apparatus, the recording medium is discharged to an output tray upon elapse of the determined waiting time after the formation of the image. The waiting time is a length of time that is large enough to straighten the recording medium so as to cause the curl amount to be smaller than a certain amount.